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Comment by lugus35 | Hacker News Reader

What would be nice is a document which would explain how to convert queries to use the GPU as its best, a document which would not require its reader to be a GPU geek nor a Postgresql expert. A technology can only succeed when the average programmer can use it without doing much errors, or can find quickly a solution using google.

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A technology can only succeed when the average programmer can use it without doing much errors, or can find quickly a solution using google.

I don't think that's true. A technology might only be able to become a mainstream product if the average programmer can use it, but there are a lot of niche products that most programmers will never use. That doesn't mean those technologies haven't succeeded.

If you only ever use things that are similar to the things you already know (e.g. things you can use without making errors) then you will only make very slow progress as a developer. You'll always be avoiding the things that are different to your existing skill set. Sometimes, if you want to use something radically different to what you already use, you have to put in the effort and learn something that is hard. You can't expect the technology to come to you.

>how to convert queries to use the GPU as its best, a document which would not require its reader to be a GPU geek nor a Postgresql expert

Uh, isn't this like asking "how do I do calculus without being a calculus geek"? I mean it's specialized - how do you get around being a "GPU geek" if you're coding for a GPU "at its best"?

Agreed. This is squarely aimed at database geeks which is a fairly esoteric audience. It's gonna get geeky.

Not being a member of the target audience doesn't mean the speaker is doing something wrong.

Here is a paper on how to accelerate SQL database operations on a GPU: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~skadron/Papers/bakkum_sqlite_gpg... (University of Virginia, 2010) and an ealier work: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Qiong_Luo2/publication/2... (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2009)

And here are similar pojects:

http://www.mapd.com/

https://github.com/antonmks/Alenka

    technology can only succeed when the average 
    programmer can use it without doing much errors

GPUs have been pretty successful despite the fact that you need to be a GPU programmer to program them.

A technology can only succeed when the average programmer can use it without doing much errors, or can find quickly a solution using google.

Well, if you want to be successful like PHP, sure that's true.

For me, I'd sooner sue something which works well when used by a person who's taken the time to learn what they're doing. It's not important to me what a person of median skill and effort can accomplish: there's only so many things the average engineer is going to be able to learn, for whatever reason.

I think you meant "use", not "sue".

So you are complaining that a pre-alpha open-source project that only works for an unreleased version of Postgresql isn't documented well enough?

You must complain a lot.

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